What’s Hassan Nasrallah Reading?

Hezbollah leader responds to a TWS report on the terrorist group's degraded arsenal.

Lee Smith

January 3, 2013 5:04 PM

Last week THE WEEKLY STANDARD published my article, “Smugglers Galore: How Iran Arms its Proxies.” It seems that part of it may have found its way onto the reading list of Hezbollah general secretary Hassan Nasrallah.

The first paragraph explains that:

An explosion in southern Lebanon last week destroyed what is believed to have been a Hezbollah weapons depot. This latest in a series of mysterious “accidents” in Hezbollah-controlled precincts proved, as one Israeli official wryly remarked, that those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons are in a very unsafe place.” With the Party of God’s overland supply route through Syria choked off by the 22-month-long uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and Israel virtually in total control of the maritime route, Hezbollah’s stockpile is being systematically degraded.”

Part of that passage was picked up and translated yesterday morning by Lebanese journalist Fares Khachan on his website Youkal.net. Today in a speech commemorating arbain, or the fortieth day after ashura, which marks the martyrdom of Hussein on the battlefield of Karbala, Nasrallah seems to have responded. “You are wrong in comparing our strength to the size of our arsenal,” said the Hezbollah leader.

We'd be happy to add Nasrallah to our subscribers' list but wouldn't know where to send copies—maybe the Iranian embassy? After all, ever since the end of the July 2006 war with Israel, Nasrallah has been in hiding in fear of an assassination attempt. With few exceptions, his speeches are delivered, as was today’s, by video feed. Nonetheless, Nasrallah claimed in today’s talk that, “Hizbullah succeeded in defeating Israel and other sides that claim to be resistance powers.” After all, said Nasrallah, “We derive our strength from Karbala.” In other words, resistance is martyrdom, defeat is triumph—and accordingly weapons, or the size of one’s arsenal, is immaterial because, from this perspective, death is life.